Project processes
This page describes in general what to consider when working on projects. It is probably not that specific to Aalto RSE, and probably needs adjustment to any individual project. Still, it is useful to have one place with good practices and a description of all the way that things can go wrong.
For the minimum mandator reporting work, see Gitlab: project tracking and reporting.
Terminology:
- project
Anything large enough to need tracking and structure. Has a thing in
- garage support Any small things we do that don’t require extensive
tracking on our side. Something where we mainly answer requests and is pushed forward by the customer coming to talk to us. May or may not actually come through garage.
- project (informal)
Confusingly, can sometimes mean both “project” and “garage support”.
Why project management?
If everyone is very well aligned in goals and ways of working, collaborations can work well. If not, there needs to be a structured flow to keep things on track - if not, beware of chaos.
Make sure that we and our customers have the same goals.
Keep track of things long-term.
Record where our time goes, so that we can get good reports for our funders, so that we will continue to be well-funded in the future.
Avoid projects which we may not be successful at due to {undefined goals, impossible goals, or generally not knowing what is going on}.
Prevent over-committing ourselves.
Show that our output work roughly corresponds to input funding (by unit, and goals of those units).
Provide sound financial tracking for projects that need it.